With a stated objective of insourcing of blade manufacturing to strengthen its supply chain and increasing competitiveness by delivering greater value, GE Renewable Energy has completed its $1.65bn acquisition of Danish LM Wind Power; one of the world’s biggest producers of wind turbine blades, supplying not only GE’s existing renewables business but also rivals such as Gamesa of Spain and Goldwind of China. The deal is the biggest since GE created a separate renewables arm and LM Wind Power is to continue supplying wind blades to all industry players.

Intersolar North America And CALSEIA are celebrating major anniversaries with an enormous solar fundraising bash, the Summerfest, at San Francisco’s AT&T Park. It’s the home of the City’s famous major league baseball stadium, and the event combines two of America’s favourite darlings — solar power and baseball. Summerfest 2017, honouring CALSEIA’s 40th year of service and Intersolar’s 10th year in San Francisco is set to be the largest and most successful fundraising event in CALSEIA’s history.

KACO new energy GmbH, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of inverters for grid feeding of solar power has concluded an agreement to supply 300 MW of inverters to South Korean system provider and EPC company DNE Solar Ltd. The German company will deliver string inverters, devices that are primarily used with commercial rooftop and utility-scale solar systems. The new contract will means a doubling of the past five year’s overall volume of trade between the two companies and DNE will only purchase string inverters from KACO.

ICCI 2017 is significant, being the first since it became a JV between Hannover Fairs Turkey, and PennWell International. “ICCI Powered by POWER-GEN” now effectively combines local knowledge, with international expertise.

Intersolar North America, the most-attended solar industry event in North America, has announced its one-day conference, Intersolar Summit USA East, in New York, will feature key solar and energy storage pioneers. New York itself, is a solar leader and has experienced a remarkable 795% growth in solar over the last 5 years. It’s now focused on an aggressive goal of generating 50% of all energy from renewables by 2030. Many executives will reflect on its progress and identify how similar tactics could be used to grow additional solar markets.

A University of Toronto innovation could make printing solar cells as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. Post-doctoral researcher Hairen Tan of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and his team have cleared a critical manufacturing hurdle in the development of a relatively new class of solar devices called perovskite solar cells. This alternative solar technology could lead to low-cost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power generator.
University Professor Ted Sargent, an expert in emerging solar technologies and the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology said, “Perovskite solar cells can enable us to use techniques already established in the printing industry to produce solar cells at very low cost.

Nordex seeks to expand engineering skills to develop even more efficient rotors. “Rotor blades are key to lowering the cost of energy,” stated Jose Luis Blanco, COO of Nordex SE. “Our partnership with SSP Technology extends as far back as 2003 and has always been very successful and constructive. I am convinced that we will be able to significantly strengthen our innovation ability by integrating the blade experts at SSP.

A lightweight and flexible solar module production system from Midsummer AB has now increased the conversion efficiency of its modules to 14 percent as verified by an independent testing laboratory. The DUO system is now the most widely spread manufacturing tool for flexible CIGS solar cells, said Sven Lindström, CEO, Midsummer AB Applications are e.g. floating modules, vehicles, landfills, portable power generation and membrane roofs on factories, offices and other structures that are not strong enough for traditional glass modules.

SolarWindow Technologies has announced plans to develop a superb problem-solving technology of electricity-generating flexible glass. It anticipates installing these sheets of electricity-generating glass veneers over existing skyscraper windows, turning entire buildings into vertical power generators and helping reduce their carbon footprint. These same veneers could be applied to flat and curved surfaces on automobiles, trucks, buses, aeroplanes, and boats to generate onboard electrical power.

With SmartCalc.CTM, Fraunhofer ISE has developed a software that helps reduce the cell-to-module power losses in PV module manufacturing. Research and industry invest lots of know-how in improving solar cell efficiency. In order that PV modules benefit from the advances in cell efficiency, the cell-to-module integration process must be performed reliably with low losses. The software was developed with this in mind and harnesses the near 40-year expertise, in this field, of Fraunhofer.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has received the official Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) cancellation certificate issued by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the successful offset of emissions during the Earth Hour 2016, in cooperation with Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE). “DEWA considers carbon emissions reduction an integral part of its environmental strategy. This is in adherence with our directives to reduce carbon emissions and move towards a green economy, and the long-term initiative launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ‘Green Economy for Sustainable Development’, said HE Saeed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.